UNDERSTANDING THE COMPLEXITIES OF BLACK AMERICAN PATRIOTISM

If you truly understood the history of this nation, you should be wondering why Black people don't hate this nation and haven't left in droves at the close of the Civil War.

A part of it is feeling trapped. I takes money to get out. And go where exactly? A lot of us haven't been exposed to whatever else is out there for us to compare with. Is there really an escape anywhere from fascism and corruption now for a lifestyle we're familiar and comfortable with? Dramatically changing your environment and entire way of life, is a huge, consequential and scary decision to make before the diligent work of implementing it. You've got to get to a level of fed up. And so comfort, ignorance, lack of resources and fear traps a lot of us just like many in abusive marriages.

Another part of it is holding out for what we are due after 246 years of stolen labor, lives and humanity upon which our national economy could never have established itself without it. Add on 100 more years of taxation without representation, equality or protection and most importantly with discrimination in the mechanisms of wealth (real estate, credit and insurance) and land grabs under "imminent domain", paying far less than it was worth. 60 more years upon that of environmental poisoning, under resourced public schools, over policing and incarceration with the highest percentages of exonerations (they didn't even do the crime). That is tallying to damages worth between 13 to 20 trillion dollars considering rates of inflation. That would have to be paid out in the fashion of a mortgage, I suggest over 40 years in the form of grants and subsidies designed to repair said damages with policy corrections that end the abuse. Leaving, would be giving up on what is owed.

The 3rd reason is we've read the constitution and believe it to be a good promise, perhaps the best ever in the history of humanity. It would be nice if we as a nation lived up to that and it applied to every citizen that makes this nation what it is. Because America boasts about these promises, we have to call out the lies, fraud and inconsistencies. We can't let that fly.

4th reason, It's a beautiful land. We enjoy all 4 seasons. We have mountains, deserts, forests, lakes, rivers, oceanfront beaches and tropical regions. We have several action and entertainment packed metropolises, social regions and quaint suburbs. We have global diversity. If we didn't have racists and white supremacy to deal with, it's a wonderful place to spend a life and there is money to be made here if you're creative, imaginative, and driven. Women and the LGBTQ have liberty, autonomy and safety unlike many other places in the world. We will have a woman president.

5th reason, part of our ancestry is indigenous to this land. A lot of our human history predates any European colonizers. African-Americans are part West-African from the slave trade which also has us mixed with European, AND we are Afro-Aboriginal. Not all Native Americans have that Siberian-Asian look like Geronimo, Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. Many looked just like the Black people you see today, mostly among the Eastern Woodland tribes, the Wampanoag, the Powhatan, the Lumbee, the Catawba, the Creek, the Seminole and the Cherokee (prior to removal and the trail of tears). That lineage goes back 60,000 years. It's 20,000 for Siberian descendants mostly in the West and there was mixing and assimilations to varying degrees. We belong to this land. Europeans are the foreigners and the ways they have abused this land, they have treated it like it's not their home. Our constitution was derived from the constitution of the Iroquois Confederacy.

So if you find Black people ever being patriotic, it has nothing whatsoever to do with white people. We are standing our ground. We belong here. This is our home upon which we have deep roots and blood investments. We belong to this land like the trees and the mountains. We are not guests here.